How Can You Reduce the Costs of Accidents at Work?

Every working day in Great Britain at least one person is killed and over 6000 are injured at work.

Every year three quarters of a million people take time off work because of what they regard as workrelated illness. About 30 million work days are lost as a result.

Accidents and ill health are costly to workers and their families.

They can also hurt companies because, in addition to the costs of personal injuries, they may incur far greater costs from damage to property or equipment, and lost production.

Managing Health and Safety - Five Steps to Success

The best approach to managing health and safety issues is to get the right procedures and practices in place from the start - and then monitor them regularly to ensure they are being carried out and are still appropriate. You are legally required to carry out a thorough health and safety risk assessment. Find out more under Related Pages.

The HSE highlight five steps to success:

• Set your policy

• Organise your staff

• Plan and set standards

• Measure your performance

• Learn from experience, audit and review

Following these will help you to keep your staff at work and reduce the costs of injuries, illness, property and equipment damage. You will have fewer stoppages, higher output, and better quality. By complying with the law and avoiding fines you will avoid damaging publicity. You cannot be a 'quality' organisation unless you apply sound management principles to health and safety.

Inspectors visiting your workplace will want to know how you manage health and safety. If an accident occurs, you, your systems, procedures, and employees will come under scrutiny. Will they stand up to examination?

Read about the five steps on the HSE website using the link from this page, and ask yourself the five questions after each one. Get your managers and staff to discuss them.

• Ask your employees if they can help you to find solutions

• Talk to your insurance company

• Talk to trade unions and safety representatives

• Speak to Eastbourne and District Chamber of Commerce or contact Business Link in the South East on 0845 600 9006

• Go to the Business Link or HSE websites using the links from this page

• Get in touch with us using the contact details below